


Cute Overload

by Chash



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Animals, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-11
Updated: 2017-10-11
Packaged: 2019-01-16 05:39:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12336558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chash/pseuds/Chash
Summary: Clarke knew there was a cheetah cub at the local zoo, but she was not expecting its zookeeper to wander into her shelter, looking for a playmate for it.Once he does, though, she's obviously going to take advantage of the situation.





	Cute Overload

**Author's Note:**

> So Liz wanted me to write a story about Bellamy and Clarke being the keepers for those two adorable baby tigers who have become friends (you can google this yourselves, I am too lazy to find a link), and this was tempting, but then I realized I could make this a fic where Bellamy and Clarke interacted with CHEETAHS, which I had somehow never done even though I am like 900% A Cheetah Kid. So here we are.

Clarke gets involved in the zoo's new animal ambassador program by accident, when she sees two guys talking at the shelter one Saturday and says, without really thinking about it, “You know there are people here who can tell you about the dogs, right?”

Both men jump, looking a little guilty, and she gives them an overly pleasant smile. They look to be about her age or a couple years older, attractive, presumably a couple looking for a new pet.

“Kids?” she asks, coming out from behind the desk and joining them at the kennels.

“Sorry?” asks one of the guys. He has curly black hair and glasses, and a slightly wary expression on his face like he thinks Clarke will scam him.

“Do you have kids, or is it just the two of you?”

The curly-haired guy opens his mouth and closes it again, and then settles on, “None of the above. The dog isn’t for us.”

“Okay,” she says, not letting her annoyance through too much. This doesn’t have to be _hard_. They’ve already been here for a while. “Who’s it for?”

Another pause, and Curly glances at his partner. This guy is taller, big and broad, with a lot of tattoos, and Curly seems to be hoping he’ll pick up the conversation. 

But apparently he’s also the silent type, because Curly is the one who says, “The new cheetah cub at the zoo.”

Clarke knew about the cub, of course. She wouldn’t say she was an expert on the zoo, but the pregnancy and birth had been big news. Cheetahs are notoriously hard to breed in captivity, and the fact that their program had actually managed it was somewhat incredible. 

Plus, the cheetah cub they kept is cute. Clarke started following the zoo on twitter just to get updates.

“You want a dog for your cheetah?”

“They do it in San Diego, it’s a really good program,” he says. “The dogs calm the cheetahs down and socialize them. I’ve been in touch with the zookeepers over there, they said rescue dogs were good.”

“Okay, this is a new one for me,” Clarke admits. “Did they tell you what kind of rescue dogs? What personality are you looking for?”

“Friendly and good with other animals, obviously,” says Curly. “Energetic but not hyper. Tamu—that’s the cub—is pretty friendly, so she could definitely use a playmate.”

“And I assume you want younger, right?”

“Yeah. She’s four months old, and we’re looking for a lifetime companion for her.”

Clarke nods. “Okay. I’ve got some puppies in the back you can look at. They’re not quite ready to be adopted out, but the age range is right, and you’ve got a few options.”

“Are you allowed to do that?”

Clarke raises her eyebrows. “Am I allowed to do what?”

“Show us the puppies.”

A smile tugs at the corner of her mouth. “Yeah, it’s not going to be a problem. Come on. You’re zookeepers?”

“Yeah. I’m Bellamy, this is Lincoln. We’re in charge of the cheetahs.”

“You guys must be so excited. I’ve seen some articles about how hard breeding is.”

Bellamy huffs a soft laugh. “Yeah, it’s been wild, honestly. We’re getting calls asking what our secret is, and I don’t actually know. We just got lucky.”

“And now you’re so happy you have her, you’re spoiling her? Getting her a puppy already.”

This laugh is stronger, more surprised. “Yeah, exactly.”

“I don’t actually know how to match puppies to cheetahs,” she says, holding the door open for him. “But these are the puppies.”

The litter came in last week, found with their mother, who didn’t survive more than a day, despite Clarke’s best efforts. The pups aren’t quite ready to go off on their own, but they’re healthy and vaccinated, probably a good fit for the zoo.

Lincoln goes over first, kneeling down and letting the puppies swarm him. The one she’s been calling Skipper runs over to her instead, pawing her leg and hoping to be picked up.

“Is this one yours?” Bellamy asks.

“Not mine,” she says, scooping Skipper into her arms. “But he’s my favorite, yeah.”

Bellamy lets the puppy sniff his hand, and once that’s proved acceptable, he gives him a pet. “So does he get your professional endorsement?”

“I think he’s probably a good candidate, yeah. A couple others too. I’m not sure what you’re looking for.”

“Yeah, I don’t know either. I should have brought Tamu to vet them.”

“They could probably come to you.”

Bellamy regards her for a moment, arms crossed over his chest, jaw set in consideration. "You're not a volunteer," he finally decides.

"I am here in a volunteer capacity today. This isn't my job. Our regular volunteer is at a wedding, so I'm covering the desk. But I'm one of the vets, yeah." She offers her hand. "Clarke Griffin."

"Bellamy Blake, like I said," he says. "You don't have to bring your dogs to us. I appreciate it, but--"

"Hypothetically, if I brought some puppies over to the zoo to test their compatibility with the cheetah cub, could I watch the cheetah cub play with the puppies?"

He laughs. "Oh, okay. That's how we're doing this."

"I follow you guys on twitter, you have some really cute pictures. I might as well see it in person if I can. Or I can just make recommendations, but I do have the authority to approve taking some puppies over to the zoo to test them with the cub and see if one of them is a good fit. I don't know a ton about animal ambassador programs, but I've seen some things, I'd be curious to find out more about that."

"And you want to play with the cheetah cub," Bellamy says.

"And I want to play with the cheetah cub."

He considers for another minute. "I don't think we want to bring all of them. Tamu doesn’t have a lot of social interaction right now, a whole litter of puppies would probably overload her."

"And they might just play with each other instead of her." Clarke nods to herself. "Okay, so--why don't you pick three and we'll figure out a time for me to bring them over to the zoo."

"That would be great, yeah." He scratches Skipper behind the ears. "Can we bring him?"

"If you want, yeah. I think he might be a good fit."

"I just don't want to take him away if you're planning to adopt."

She has to laugh. "Trust me, if I adopted every dog I got along with here, I would run out of room. He's a good boy and I want him to have a good home. So if you can be that home, I’d be happy.”

"Okay." His smile is crooked, and Clarke feels an unwelcome lurch of attraction. He has a smattering of freckles across his face and deep brown eyes behind his glasses, and she doesn't want to notice those details, but it's unavoidable. He's very cute. "I really appreciate it. Thanks for helping out. This is our first cub and we're kind of flailing, honestly."

"I guess there must be a lot of pressure, yeah. You're, like, zoo prodigies, right?"

He laughs. "Yeah, apparently. I feel like I'm getting way too much credit for successfully getting animals to have sex."

"I know a lot of animal breeders, it's a real skill."

"If I can keep it up, yeah. But for right now, it's a fluke. An awesome fluke, I'm really happy," he adds, quick. "But--yeah, I don't have a fucking clue what I'm doing."

"This seems like a good start. The dog."

"I hope so. I'm actually pretty excited about it," he adds, smiling a little. "Trying out the whole ambassador thing."

"Cool. So, go meet some dogs and make some choices, and we'll set up a time for them to meet the cheetah."

"Sounds good. Thanks, Clarke. Really."

She has to smile. "As long as I get to meet the cheetah too, we're even."

*

Clarke doesn't go to the zoo very often, but when she does, she brings Amara, and this time is no exception. Her goddaughter is five and probably a little too young to actually interact with the cheetah, but even just getting an up-close look at the cub is going to make her year. Especially if she's also playing with puppies.

Bellamy approved Amara joining them without hesitation, and he's waiting for them at the employee gate, clearing them to come in with the security guard. He's just as attractive as Clarke remembers, all messy curls and broad shoulders, dressed for work now in a polo shirt and slacks, his glasses a little crooked.

"Hey, thanks for coming out, nice to see you again." He crouches down. "You're Amara?"

"Uh huh."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Bellamy. Thanks for bringing the puppies for me."

"You're welcome."

He smiles a little, apparently not surprised by her shyness. Even if he's mostly behind the scenes at the zoo, he probably interacts a lot with kids. He must be used to it. "Okay," he says, straightening up. "I'd offer you a tour, but we should unload the puppies first. We've got a room where they can hang out and then I think we'll introduce them one-on-one."

"Yeah, that would be great. They're just hanging out in the back of my car right now, they'd love to get a chance to run around."

"Cool. I'll show you where they can go."

Lincoln is waiting in the room when they get there, and Clarke feels better not leaving the puppies alone, even though they're alone a lot at the shelter. In an unfamiliar place, they could cause some real chaos. 

The facility isn't that exciting for Amara, so Bellamy speeds through most of it, giving Clarke just enough background that she gets an idea of the layout and how it functions, but he knows what the main attraction is.

"Do you want to meet Tamu?" he asks.

"Yeah!" says Amara. She's relaxed enough to be friendly, at this point. 

"Do you have any pets at home?"

"Uh huh."

"What pets?"

"A cat and a dog."

"And you know you have to be careful with them, right?" he asks.

"Yeah. And I have to be more careful with wild animals," says Amara.

"I guess Clarke probably told you about that, huh? That's good. So Tamu is pretty little, and she's still friendly right now. Cheetahs are easier to tame than a lot of the big cats, but she's still wild and you need to be careful around her."

"Is she going to be nice to the puppies?"

Bellamy smiles. "Yeah, I think so. She's a nice cub, that's why we want her to have a friend." He sobers again. "So, you need to listen to me and your godmother, okay? Do what we tell you, and be careful. We don't want you to get hurt."

Amara nods, serious. She looks so much like Wells sometimes, Clarke can't help smiling. They're the most earnest family she's ever met. "I know."

"Okay. Come on in."

The cheetah is familiar from the twitter pictures, with the kind of gangly awkwardness all young animals have, long legs and exaggerated proportions. There's still some fuzz on her head, a fluffiness that Clarke knows will smooth out as she gets older.

She definitely knows Bellamy, and she's definitely excited to see him, jumping off her perch and coming over to chirp at him. Bellamy gives her a scratch behind the ears, like he would any other cat, and then stays close to her as she comes to sniff at Clarke and Amara.

"Let her smell you," he says, gentle. "Like I said, she's friendly and not really afraid of people, but you still need to be careful."

"Can I pet her?" Amara asks, when Tamu starts rubbing her head on her hand.

"Yeah, you're good. Go ahead." Clarke raises her eyebrows at him, and he grins. "Yeah, you can too. She likes attention."

"Does she spend a lot of time with her parents?"

"Not a ton," he admits. "It would be nice if she could nurse, but her mother wasn't producing enough milk, so--she spends some time with her mother, but she's hand-fed and raised."

"She seems like she's doing well."

"Healthy and happy, from what we can tell. All of her vitals look good. But I am worried about the socialization. I don't want to be her only friend."

Tamu is headbutting him again while he absently scratches her neck, and Clarke likes being a vet, she does, but it's hard to not be jealous of the zookeeper right now. He's got a baby cheetah asking him for attention, and he's so used to it he can multitask.

"She does look pretty lonely."

Bellamy smiles. "She does, yeah. You want to see how she does with the puppies?"

It's just about the most adorable afternoon of Clarke's life. Between the puppies, the cheetah, and Amara, it's a whole lot of small, cute things enjoying themselves. Tamu romps around with the puppies, chasing them across the room and rough-housing. She seems happy with all of them, but it's Skipper she finally relaxes with, flopping down with him after they finish playing, making one exhausted pile of fluff in the middle of the room.

"I think any of them would be fine, but I'd vote for him," she tells Bellamy, and he smiles.

"Yeah, I was thinking that too. Where do I sign?"

Clarke brought the paperwork with her, so all Bellamy has to do is fill it out and sign. She still has to take the puppy back, since he's not old enough to leave and Bellamy doesn't have time to give him the care he needs on top of giving Tamu the care she needs, but Skipper will be ready to go in a week or so, and Bellamy's made up his mind.

"You know, I could probably bring him back by," Clarke finds herself saying, as Bellamy walks them to the car.

"Hm?" he asks, glancing at her.

"If you want them to get socialized, I could bring him back over a few times to get them used to each other. Before he moves in."

"You don't have to," he starts, and laughs at her expression. "Sorry. I know you know you don't have to. If you want to, that would be nice. I think the socializing is good for her regardless, and if they have a big fight I'll know I should try a different dog."

"If you give me your number, I can text you when I have some time? My schedule is a little unpredictable."

"Yeah, of course. I'm here most of the time, honestly, so if you ever want to stop by just let me know and we can make it happen." He pulls a face. "I mean, uh--within reason. I do have a life outside the zoo."

She has to smile. "Do you?"

"Less and less. But there might be times you can't get me here. Occasionally."

"Looking forward to finding out," she says. "Nice to see you again."

"You too. Thank you so much for your help. I really appreciate it."

"If anyone asks where the dog came from, pass our name along."

"Don't worry, we'll put you on the website. If we end up doing it more we'll even partner with you."

"Cool. So--we'll be in touch."

"Yeah." He crouches down to address Amara again. "Did you have fun?"

"Yeah!"

"Good. If you want to come back, you can tell your godmother, and we'll try to figure something out."

"Really?" Clarke asks, and he smiles.

"I have a niece too, I get it. I'm always happy to pull some strings for private tours or whatever. I'm a great resource for birthday parties."

"Yeah, I bet. I'll let her parents know. And we'll be in touch about everything else?"

"Sounds good. Talk to you soon."

Once they're in the car and driving away, Amara declares, "I like him. He's nice."

Clarke glances back in the rearview mirror, pretends she can see Bellamy even though he's out of sight. 

"Yeah," she admits. "I like him too."

*

Three days later, Clarke’s last appointment for the day cancels, leaving her with an unexpected extra hour of free time at the end of the day. She texts Bellamy to ask if he’ll be at the zoo, which he confirms, and then she’s just got an anxious afternoon wondering if anyone will call with an emergency. Which wouldn’t be bad, of course, but—she _would_ like to go hang out with the cute zookeeper and some baby animals. It doesn’t feel like too much to ask.

She finishes our her appointments with nothing else on the horizon, so she picks up Skipper and makes the drive over to the zoo. As before, Bellamy gets her in the employee entrance, and that’s when she starts feeling awkward. It was easier with Amara around to pull focus; on her own, she doesn’t feel like she belongs.

But Bellamy seems fairly comfortable anyway. He gives her a wide smile and gets Skipper himself, laughing when the puppy licks his chin.

“It’s nice to see you too. Thanks for coming by.”

“No problem. I didn’t want to do paperwork anyway.” 

“Yeah, that sounds right. Does this count as work?”

She shrugs. “I’m my own boss, pretty much. No one cares if I take time off. It’s good PR for office, anyway.”

“Yeah, I was thinking about getting some video for twitter, I can tag you. Cross promotion.”

“Why did you come to us?” she asks, curious.

“O and Lincoln actually got their dog from you, and she’s a good dog, so we figured we’d go back.”

“O?”

“My little sister. She and Lincoln are married.”

“Oh, right. You said you had a niece.”

“Yeah. They got a puppy last year and had a good experience, so we figured we’d try you first. Apparently you’re their vet, too.”

She frowns. “I am?”

“Lincoln didn’t know either. O’s the one who brings the dog in. Octavia,” he adds. 

"Oh!" she says, instantly picturing the woman, and Bellamy laughs.

"Yeah, there aren't a lot of Octaviae around."

"Did you just use the proper Latin plural form of your sister's name?" she asks, a little charmed in spite of her best efforts. She doesn’t want to like him, but she really does.

He shrugs one shoulder. "What's the point in giving someone a Latin name if you don't use the correct plural?"

"Did you give her the name?"

"I did, yeah. My mom let me, and I was a nerd." He holds the door open for her. "I mean, I still am a nerd too, but--"

She smiles. "A once and future nerd, obviously."

"Obviously."

Tamu dashes over to them, all excitement at the sight of Bellamy, and he laughs as she licks his hands. "She acts like she's been alone for twenty years, but Lincoln literally just left."

"No wonder she needs a buddy."

"Yeah, I'm looking forward to him getting to stay. I think he's going to be good for her." He reaches over and takes Skipper from Clarke, putting him down carefully. The two animals clearly remember each other and are thrilled to be reunited, and they're rolling around on the floor in no time.

"Your job isn't always this cute, right? I'd have to be really jealous."

Bellamy snorts. "Aren't you a vet? Isn't your life full of puppies and kittens? Why would you be jealous of me?"

"Okay, yeah, but--you get to play with big cats."

"Yeah, it's pretty cool. But Tamu's my first cub, so it's still pretty overwhelming. It's not like the adults come over for affection like this."

"No?"

"I didn't raise them. They recognize me and like me fine, but they're not like this. We’re probably going to be able to do programs with her, and we don’t with the adults.”

"That's cool, though. That you get to raise this one."

"Yeah. Me and my cheetah and our dog," he says, smiling at the pair of them.

"Not a bad job if you can get it."

"Not so far. How are you with cameras?"

She blinks. "Cameras?"

"I'm not great at videos but I should post about this on social media, so--"

"Oh! Yeah, I can do videos. Do you want me to use your phone?"

He hands it over, and Clarke sees his background is a picture of himself with a small girl on his shoulders, presumably his niece. They're both grinning widely, and he really is just--fuck. _So_ fucking cute.

"Do you do the twitter posting?"

"Not usually. I take pictures and send them to our social media guy, and he figures out when they should go up. I suggest captions, sometimes."

"The pictures are pretty good."

"Yeah, I can usually get at least one good shot. But my hands are kind of shaky, so my videos suck. Lincoln does those, when we have them."

"I'm getting all the behind the scenes scoops." She takes a couple videos with his phone, and then gets some shots with hers. "I assume we can brag about this on Facebook?"

"Yeah, it's not like it's a secret. I'm happy if this is good PR for you guys."

"Fame by association." She worries her lip. "This is awkward, right?"

"I was just going to pretend everything was cool, but, yeah. If you're going to try to talk about it, it's awkward." He smiles. "How's Amara doing?"

"She hasn't shut up about the cheetah, honestly. I think her dad might kill me."

"How do you know her parents?"

"Her dad and I grew up together. Best friends for life, pretty much. How old is your niece? What's her name?"

"Isabelle. She's four." He flashes her a grin. "O says I spoil her rotten."

"I think that's the uncle's job, honestly. I bet you have a billion more pictures of her."

"Two billion. You want to look at pictures of my niece when there's a puppy playing with a cheetah cub right in front of us?"

"I can multitask."

It's the right subject change; Bellamy is happy to show off a billion pictures of Isabella, as well as his sister and the dog, whom Clarke knows, and that gets her a decent amount of background on Bellamy himself. He's thirty-three, single, and got into zookeeping largely by accident, getting a job at the zoo to help his mom with bills and ending up getting degrees part-time so he could get better positions. He liked the cheetahs best and was lucky enough to be allowed to work with them, and he's still recovering from all the attention he's getting for the successful breed.

"Is it really that big a deal?"

"I guess it's more, just--no one was expecting it to work this soon. It was our first try, and it's really stupidly lucky. Everyone wants to know if I did anything special, so I've been trying to remember every detail, but I can't come up with anything."

"Like you said, you're just really good at getting animals to have sex."

"I must be an aphrodisiac." He gives her a smile. "You must have awkward vet stories. Help me out here."

"So many awkward vet stories. I bet I get peed on more than you do."

He laughs. "I wouldn't brag about that if I were you."

"Not all of us can be great at getting cheetahs to hook up."

"Yeah, when you put it like that."

Clarke only makes it in for two more playdates before Skipper is ready to move in to the zoo, and they're both kind of like that, slightly awkward in a way that she really wants to power through, even if she doesn't know how. She'd like to see more Bellamy, to get over the hump of unfamiliarity and become--friendly. More than friendly, maybe.

Crushes suck.

Once he has the dog, though, the whole thing pretty much blows over. Bellamy Blake was, at the end of the day, a cute boy she saw a few times over the course of a couple weeks. She liked him, enjoyed spending time with him, and she'll get a little thrill every time the zoo twitter posts a cheetah picture because she knows he probably took it, but that's it. It was mostly fun and only a little bit awkward while it lasted, and now it's done.

It's fine.

*

"You just got the four-thirty slot filled," Gaia tells Clarke. "First-time visitor. Bellamy Blake with his dog Skipper. Apparently Skipper had a nasty--are you okay?"

Clarke manages to close her mouth with an effort. It's been two months since she last saw Bellamy, and she was sort of assuming she never would again. Or wouldn't until she talked herself into texting him about a special cheetah visit for Amara. She was sort of working up to it.

"That's the guy from the zoo," she tells Gaia. "Skipper's one of our rescue puppies, the one who got placed with the cheetah."

"Oh! Well, he didn't sound too worried? So it's probably not a disaster."

"Probably not," Clarke agrees, but she can't help worrying. Did Tamu scratch him? Maybe it's not working out, and that's why Bellamy is bringing Skipper here. After all, he works at a _zoo_. They must have on-site facilities to deal with injured animals.

But Bellamy’s coming to her. Skipper might not have such a great home after all. Which would be embarrassing, because Clarke has definitely been sharing pictures of him and Tamu on Facebook and Twitter, and people have been liking it. She thought they looked like they were doing well.

Her four o’clock appointment is the most aggressive housecat she’s ever met, and it goes over both because she was already behind schedule and because the cat is trying to murder her. So it’s 4:45 by the time she makes it to Bellamy’s exam room, and some part of her is expecting him to not be there.

But there he is, dressed in his work polo and khakis, smiling at the sight of her, and it rushes back to her all at once how much she likes him and how good it is to see him again.

“Hey,” he says.

“Hi. What happened? Is everything okay? Did he and Tamu—“

He’s laughing a little, soft. “It’s fine. They were trying out their new enclosure and he fell off a rock. Tamu’s legs are still longer than his, he’s overconfident. I think it’s probably nothing, but he’s limping, so I thought I should bring him by.”

“Fuck, you scared the shit out of me! I thought he and Tamu got in a fight and you were returning him.”

“I told the receptionist it was just a bad fall.”

“And I didn’t listen to her,” she says. “It’s been a busy day. Put him up on the table.”

Skipper is getting a little big for Bellamy to pick him up, but he still seems to love it, licking Bellamy’s face in delight once he’s close enough. He also remembers Clarke, which is a blessing. Pets who like her are the best.

“Hey, buddy, welcome back. Your leg’s hurting? He’s good aside from that?” she adds, to Bellamy. “They’re getting along?”

“Yeah, they’re great. I know you’ve seen the pictures,” he adds, and she grins.

“I did tell you I followed your twitter.” She starts in on a basic exam, just to be safe, but she’s pretty sure Skipper is fine and Bellamy is just paranoid. Most new pet owners are, even if the circumstances of his ownership are fairly unique. “I just thought you’d deal with this in-house. If it was going well.”

He rubs the back of his neck. “Honestly, I felt bad asking out on-site vets to look at a dog’s sprained ankle. They have real problems to deal with.”

“So you took him to the casual vet,” she teases, and he rubs the back of his neck.

“I didn’t mean it like that.”

“I don’t mind. I’m just glad it’s going well.”

“Yeah.” He clears his throat. “I was kind of expecting you to come check on them more.”

“Yeah?”

“Hoping, maybe.”

His tone is careful, and Clarke bites her lip on a smile. “You know you could have called me, right? You have my number. You didn’t have to wait for your dog to get hurt.”

“That’s so direct.”

“Yeah, that’s why I wasn’t doing it too. I figured I could text around Amara’s birthday and go from there.”

“When’s that?”

“Three more months.”

“Wow. I’m not _glad_ the dog got hurt, but—“

She has to smile. “So, are you busy tonight?”

“I have to take Skipper back to the zoo, but other than that, yeah. If you want to come see Tamu, I’ll buy you dinner after.”

“Do you take all your dates to see the cheetahs?” she teases.

“I’m not sure why I’d go on a date with someone who didn’t want VIP access to cheetahs. That’s my biggest draw.”

“I don’t know about _biggest_.” She gives Skipper a scratch behind the ear. “But it’s a plus. The dog is fine. His leg is sprained, so they should take it easy for a couple days, but he’ll probably figure that out on his own. Maybe just supervise them when they’re outside.”

“I can do that.” He cocks his head at her, smirking. “What is my biggest draw?”

He’s cute, so she lets herself tap his cheekbone. “Freckles, definitely.”

That makes him laugh. “Cool. So, cheetah and dinner?”

“Sounds like a perfect date.”

“Yeah, I was hoping you’d think that.”

*

“Fuck.”

Clarke can’t help a smirk. “Don’t tell me, your cheetah is pregnant.”

“Maybe I have the weirdest, most obscure superpower ever.”

“You should see if it works with other animals.”

He drops his head onto her shoulder, and she pets his hair. They’ve only been living together for a couple months, but so far she’s a big fan. 

“Honestly, the last thing I want is a reputation as the guy who likes hanging out while animals have sex.”

“Even if you get results?”

“Especially if I get results."

She laughs. "Still, congratulations. I can't believe you stumbled into a successful cheetah breeding program."

"Fuck, I'm going to be regarded as an expert in my field. I'm already getting emails. I got _really fucking lucky_. That's it."

"At least you aren't artificially inseminating them," she muses. "Then people would be asking you to go around the country, inseminating their cheetahs."

"You're really helping, thanks."

She leans down to kiss his forehead. "On the bright side, all of your cheetahs are going to have the best dog BFFs ever. We could make a whole business of it: all of your cheetah cubs come with a free dog buddy."

"You're joking, but that's actually not the worst idea. They'd travel better with friends."

"See? You've got this. It's going to be great. The world famous cheetah breeder and his girlfriend with the rescue dogs. That's not a bad brand."

"It's going to fall apart. I can't keep up this track record."

"Just the cheetah-breeding part is falling apart," she says. "The rest is solid."

He smiles a little, leaning up for a kiss. "Yeah," he agrees. "The rest is good."


End file.
